


The Talk

by brothergrimace1



Category: Daria - Fandom
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-07
Updated: 2017-08-07
Packaged: 2018-12-12 07:40:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11732571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brothergrimace1/pseuds/brothergrimace1
Summary: When Tom and Daria are considering taking their relationship to a new level, Quinn takes the opportunity to have a talk with her about that that relationship is really about.





	The Talk

**Author's Note:**

> (NOTE: This fic takes place during the midpoint of My Night At Daria's.)

 

"...Daria?"  
  
"Yes, Quinn. What is it now?"  
  
"Can I ask you a question?"  
  
"I don't know, Quinn. Can you ask me a question?"  
  
Quinn leaned against the doorway of the bathroom that they shared. "Um, I was wondering... why are you going out with Tom Sloane?"  
  
Daria turned away from her desk to face her sister so fast that Quinn nearly lost bladder control (though she'd never admit that her sister was capable of scaring her to that level).  
  
"What...?"  
  
"I can see why I'd go out with a guy like him - I mean, it's just obvious! I can see why Jane would go out with someone like him, too - it's that, what do you call it, that thing with your parking tickets when they stamp it and you don't have to pay - 'verification!' It's verification that she's worth something in the eyes of other people when a guy like him wants to actually date her, rather than just try to get her in a backseat and around the baseball jewels!"  
  
"Quinn." Daria's voice was dangerous. "Jane doesn't have to prove she's worth anything to anyone."  
  
"Well, I know that, you know that and even Sandi knows that - why do you think she never tried once to steal Tom from Jane? She knows deep down that up against Jane, she has nothing to offer - after all, Jane was a jock princess and had that cute runner with his tongue hanging out for her, and when Brittany got the boot from the track team, the cheerleaders went to try and get Jane. If she really wanted to, she could still do both, and Ms. Li would let her!"  
  
Daria blinked away near-total surprise as Quinn continued.  
  
"It's only because of her family just walking away and leaving her with that big, empty house and her cute loser brother - he is, he's nice to her but he in, you know that, if he wasn't you'd still be drooling in your head over him - that's the only reason she feels like that, and when somebody like Tom wants to be around her, that makes her feel better about herself. Jane's got low self-esteem, but if she'd ever just look at herself in the mirror, she'd see that she doesn't have to be like that."  
  
Daria shook her head clear. "I want you to tell me right now where the real Quinn is. I'll be able to tell who you really are soon enough; that _Polyjuice Potion_  only lasts for an hour."  
  
"It's like that thing you do there - you do that to make most people stay away from you. It's like having a guard dog in the front yard - anybody smart enough to figure out a way past the dog is worth learning about as a possible friend, in your head."  
  
Daria just stared; Quinn shrugged. "Well, duh! That book of Mom's - 'How To Read Juries?' come on - 'the court of public opinion?' That book's good for the real world and high school, too?"  
  
"When did you read that book?"  
  
"Quinn stuck her lip out. "Remember all of those times I got sat in the corner for 'time-outs', or sent to my room for, well, whatever? Mom would stick a book in my hands and said that if I read a few pages, or a chapter, and can tell me what I read - she'd lessen the punishment. After sixteen years and all the legal books I had to read, the stuff just starts to sink in!"  
  
The room went quiet.  
  
"Anyway - I was just curious. You don't need anybody like that, you don't care what people think about you in a social way, and well, yes, you're both smart... but I don't get why you two are going out."  
  
"We have fun. We get to watch people do stupid things."  
  
"You do that with Jane. It's like, you like being around Tom as a friend, I guess, but you're working at being a girlfriend because, like, you don't want to fail. You don't want to look like you almost gave up a really good friend, and that it was a big mistake because you really don't connect like you thought you would."  
  
"You don't know what you're talking about."  
  
"I know about that green dress."  
  
Daria went quiet once more.  
  
"I just thought..." Quinn shifted her foot slightly. "I just didn't see you, you know, just 'going out' with somebody... don't kick me in the face for saying this, but I didn't think you'd date until you found your Edward, or your Jacob."  
  
Daria rocketed to her feet, and Quinn half-ducked behind the bathroom door. "You touch me and I'll tell Mom to punish you with a _makeover_!"  
  
The bespectacled one's hands, curled into pale talons, stopped in mid-flight inches from the perky one's cute neck; Daria withdrew to the safety of her chair.  
  
"It's true, though," Quinn continued, secretly glad that she was wearing the coal-black slacks that she kept from a year or so back. _The tiny leak would never show..._  
  
"I'm not Bella Swan!"  
  
"No - but I can't see you being part of something unless you're all the way in - and if you're not, or someone makes you do it, even if that someone's you - you try to sabotage it. I can easily see you being all the way into some guy; you'd never stop being you, but I can see you being like totally into some guy. You'd never think about it, no matter what 'it' is, you'd just do it and never look back... and it wouldn't be 'work'."  
  
"I really like Tom."  
  
"Do you 'like' like him?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"I see you kissing him... but I never see you just looking into his eyes. I never see you just looking at him, Daria. I see you with him, but I've never seen you two 'together', y'know?  
  
"And you never will. UGH!"  
  
"Not THAT! I mean... Daria... if I didn't know you, but just knew you, and I saw you and Tom somewhere together, I'd have to ask what you two were doing there together, instead of thinking 'Oh, they're here together.' It's just..."  
  
Quinn eased forward, slightly, through the doorway, and then moved back fractionally. "I hear stuff. I hear... you know, stuff. I just - it's like, the walls are paper-thin, and I have to hear that crazy show you watch - I hear stuff."  
  
She leaned against the wall. "I don't like to hear it when you cry."  
  
The carrot-topped girl pulled herself back through the door. "I'm just saying."  
  
As she closed the door, Daria's voice followed her through.  
  
"Quinn. Thanks."  
  
The bathroom door closed.  
  
  
****END****

 

 

 

29 January 2014


End file.
